Alabama Church Blasted Over Sign: ‘They Falsely Accused Jesus! Vote Roy Moore’

The Living Way Ministries Church in Opelika, Alabama, has taken a lot of heat over a sign they posted last week that read: “They Falsely Accused Jesus. Vote Roy Moore.” According to local reports, the church has been flooded by phone calls protesting the sign.

The church said that several people have access to keys to the signboard and that the church’s pastor did not put the message up. After two days, the pastor asked for the sign to be removed, according to WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama.

Moore is the GOP candidate in the Dec. 12 special Senate election to replace Jeff Sessions, who vacated the seat when he became Attorney General. Republican Luther Strange currently holds the seat by appointment, but he lost in the primaries to Moore, who is facing Democrat Doug Jones.

Moore has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct by pursuing relationships with them whey they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. One woman, Leigh Corfman, claimed that Moore touched her over her underwear and guided her hand toward his penis when she was 14 and he was 32. Another woman, Beverly Young Nelson, accused Moore of attempting to rape her when she was 16. The explosive allegations were first published by the Washington Post.

Moore denied all allegations and claimed to not have known any of the accusers. After the allegations surfaced, Republican leadership backed away from him.

However, some key Republican lawmakers have decided to support Moore a week before the election. President Donald Trump officially endorsed him Monday and the Republican National Committee followed suit after previously cutting ties with Moore.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had called for Moore to drop out of the race, but walked that back on Sunday.

“The people of Alabama are going to decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate,” McConnell said on Sunday in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It’s really up to them. It’s been a pretty robust campaign with a lot of people weighing in. The president and I, of course, supported somebody different earlier in the process. But in the end, the voters of Alabama will make their choice.”

The Living Way Ministries Church's sign raises questions about tax-exempt status for churches and religious organizations. Churches are typically non-profit entities exempt from taxes, but IRS laws prohibit churches from endorsing political candidates in order to maintain their status.